NokiaWnW's News Roundup

[NokiaWnW]

Ethnic Diversity in Afghanistan: A Case for Federalism

3529H

Ethnic Diversity in Afghanistan: A Case for Federalism

the book is awesome. I read it with joy. The author is a Pakistani Pathan? who is aware of Afghanistan´s history and problems. This book should be a must for everyone.

[Ghundal]

Lol

Afghanistan was founded as an Emirate by Ahmad Shah Baba.

Before him, what makes up today's Afghanistan was acquired by Mirwais neeka and the tribes under his leadership.

Buddy, there will be no federalism.

Afghanistan like always will be ruled by those who helped form it

Got that?

No Afghan is going to give up the North to a bunch of pathetic Northern Alliance criminals who can't even fight their own wars.

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

Some federations are more unitary in nature than some unitary states. Pakistan is one example.

By the way, this research is of a very low quality. The footnoting is all wrong, for starters. He doesn't mention the Durand line issue in so many places where it was relevant. His source for a lot of knowledge is Wikipedia.

Federalism has been the most effective form of government in ethnically diverse states. But without proper infrastructure and institutions, the centers's sovereignty will be weakened in such a division of power. This is an ongoing debate in Afghanistan at the moment. The Pashtuns prefer a presidential unitary state whereas the minorities want a parliamentary form of government on federal lines. Of course, not all federal centers give up control so easily - take Pakistan for example. It was declared a federal republic in 1956 yet the concurrent list was only dropped in 2010 and the center still exerts a lot of control over the provinces.

Ghundal, your rant above doesn't make any sense. The days of emirates are over, this is the 21st century. All the states of the world became constitutional in the last 100 years. Of course you'd know that if you ever went to a decent school or read a book.

[Ghundal]

Btw, Afghanistan is a zero sum game. That's exactly how Karzai saw it at the beginning with the Northern Alliance, both who jumped on the bandwagon of foreign occupation.

Why are they all of a sudden having a somersault in thoughts? Suddenly, Karzai wants to talk with the Taliban. northern Alliance wants the US to fight the Taliban forever on their behalf, and ANP thought they could be cheerleaders forever too.

It's why the karzai/northern alliance/ANP nexus are yelling and screaming.
It has been they who have been endorsing and supporting this war for the last decade.

What compromise or talks are they talking about? karzai in fact, when he didn't feel bothered in late 2001/2002 rejected peace talks outright .

America simply used them as tissue paper just as they used Qaddafi, Saddam, and the rest.

Karzai is smart enough to know this now along with the Northern Alliance

If the end was not really in sight, Karzai/Spanta/military industry complex/ McCain would not be hysterical like they are now

That's how one can figure it out.

Northern Alliance is no threat whatsoever to Afghanistans future.
The talk of splitting Afghanistan goes out the window.
Their leaders will run to Dubai to the luxury life they made for themselves
Those Abdullah Abdullah/ Anarulleh Saleh threats of civil war are just hot air. These are the same people who had others fight their battles, and still failed

[Ghundal]

Some federations are more unitary in nature than some unitary states. Pakistan is one example.

By the way, this research is of a very low quality. The footnoting is all wrong, for starters. He doesn't mention the Durand line issue in so many places where it was relevant. His source for a lot of knowledge is Wikipedia.

Federalism has been the most effective form of government in ethnically diverse states. But without proper infrastructure and institutions, the centers's sovereignty will be weakened in such a division of power. This is an ongoing debate in Afghanistan at the moment. The Pashtuns prefer a presidential unitary state whereas the minorities want a parliamentary form of government on federal lines. Of course, not all federal centers give up control so easily - take Pakistan for example. It was declared a federal republic in 1956 yet the concurrent list was only dropped in 2010 and the center still exerts a lot of control over the provinces.

Ghundal, your rant above doesn't make any sense. The days of emirates are over, this is the 21st century. All the states of the world became constitutional in the last 100 years. Of course you'd know that if you ever went to a decent school or read a book.

The usual distortion and characteristic flat earth society and ahistorical fantasy. Your facts seem to rise out of thin air.
Is that all?

Tell me how Pakistan would be the exact evidence of how a federalist state works?
Or one that has failed? Are you serious? Pakistan is one of the most corrupt nations, and you think Afghanistan wants this?

Pakistan can only exert control over KP and that's because KP has adopted the secular nature of Pakistan politics. However, Pakistan fails to hold FATA and Balochistan- and that is due to the independent nature of the people.

What cave are you living under buddy? Egypt going Sharia? Check Tunisia going Sharia? Check. Libya already Sharia ? Check

Afghanistan going Sharia, check? Assad (a secularist) is losing Syria to what you call Islamists? Cheeeeck!

Evidently, federalism and other Western forms of government are dying out.

, that whole region has rejected Western forms of government

It appears you are bent on distorting reality to what you want to see. The Arab Spring was not for secular democracy as you thought, but Islamic Sharia, as you can see. Maybe you need to check the definition of emirate in a book- the dictionary.

[JattApache]

Lol

Afghanistan was founded as an Emirate by Ahmad Shah Baba.

Before him, what makes up today's Afghanistan was acquired by Mirwais neeka and the tribes under his leadership.

Buddy, there will be no federalism.

Afghanistan like always will be ruled by those who helped form it

Got that?

No Afghan is going to give up the North to a bunch of pathetic Northern Alliance criminals who can't even fight their own wars.

Are the tajiks considered " afghans " ?
I mean that they represent an important part of the population of afghanistan

But i have seen some pashtuns mocking these tajiks living in north afghanistan,
They said : " you cannot be an afghan because that means " pashtun " ".

But an inhabitant of Afghanistan is an " afghan " , right ?

So the hazaras and tajiks living there are afghans ?

[Khostai]

Of course they are afghan they are born in afghanistan and are raised there.
That some pashtuns mock on them not being afghans is just silly, and some tajiks are also calling Pashtuns Pakis, so its just stupid remarks by stupid indiviuals who don't have contact whith other ethicities would only say such things. Don't listen to such peopel.

[Khostai]

Nokia what ethnicity are you? are you pashtun or tajik or hazara?
Reading you previous post you are anti-taliban, but I never hear you say something about
the NA, or other warlords, its seems that you don't care about the pashtun population, you just only wish good for your self and your kind what ever that could be, your ideas of fedral state is not a solution, it only will make problems bigger in Afghanistan not better.

[ComradePashtun]

I had pin pointed this repulsive harami character way some time ago...

[NokiaWnW]

I had pin pointed this repulsive harami character way some time ago...

You call your pumpkin head´s father a harami? How rude

[NokiaWnW]

Khostai, I am Safi Pashayeewar.

@Ghundal

you are a sheep. Read the article I posted which show your future how NA *******s will take out your Taliban *******s. It would be easy for every power in Afghanistan to capture Kabul, except for Taliban. Yesterday, they were welcomed and commanders thought to negotiate with them to bring peace. They showed their nature. Those unarmed civilians or former Mujaheddins who gave up their weapons because of the fake peace Taliban promised are again armed. Just go to Logar, Laghman or Gardez valley. The Taliban exists today mainly there were people welcome them while in all other places they are smashed down and pushed out. This is the idea of federalism.

[NokiaWnW]

Nokia what ethnicity are you? are you pashtun or tajik or hazara?
Reading you previous post you are anti-taliban, but I never hear you say something about
the NA, or other warlords, its seems that you don't care about the pashtun population, you just only wish good for your self and your kind what ever that could be, your ideas of fedral state is not a solution, it only will make problems bigger in Afghanistan not better.

Maybe because Pashtuns are selfish, were selfish and now still want be selfish? They want a government by faking demography of the state, they want a state with privilegs for only one party, they want a state build on Pashtun shoulders while majority are non-Pashtuns. It had never worked and instead all those Mohamdzai and Barakzai tribes became Dari-speakers and at the end it caused more damage to Afghanistan and specially to Pashtuns than to anyone. Majority of Pashtuns want Taliban. You can not make them understand they are dangerous people, they are servants of ISI and other criminals (US, PAK, Israel....). The case with NA is that they are highly anti-Taliban and support democracy and a federal system, most of all Dostum. But some selfish losers who today sit in the West fear he could lose power and the monopoly of power. If they had all the powers what are they doing in the West? The idea of federalism is highly regarded as a positive step, undermined with a parlamentarian government. Majority of analysts and civilians are for federalism which is obviously better than Taliban, current government etc. We had tribalism, we had monarchy, we had socialism, we had warlordism, we had Talibanism and Al-Qaidism ... not much remained. So, let´s step to the next which is federalism. Taliban and the currenz government are the worsest enemy of the civilians. People do not make wars because it´s and adventure for them but because something is going wrong in the state. Maybe oppression or maybe marginalization of a specific group. The past wars we had were because of oppression and tyranny, ironically by Dari-speaking Pashtuns.

[NokiaWnW]

Hizbe Islami says she is kept out of the talks

Talks with One Group Will Not Bring Peace in Afghanistan, Hezb-i Islami Says


If peace talks are held with only one of the groups involved in the Afghan conflict, it will not result in peace in the country, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the head and founder of Hezb-i Islami, said on Sunday.

Destabilising Afghanistan is not a difficult task and any groups sidelined from the peace negotiations would be a major threat to the country, top A Hezb-i Islami official, Ghairat Baheer, said. Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have recently been reported in the media. It seems that Mr Hekmatyar is concerned about being sidelined in negotiations.

"If any groups are ignored in the peace talks, it would change to resistance force against the government and could be a major threat to Afghanistan," Mr Baheer said. "Destabilising Afghanistan is not a difficult task, it's too easy."

He also said that US-Taliban negotiations are at a preliminary level.

"They haven't agreed on small issues yet and none of the Afghan prisoners have been released from jail," he said. "None of the names have been removed from from black list."

Some experts believe that is if these groups are ignored in peace negotiations, they would be supported by foreign countries and could create violence in the country.

A delegation from Hezb-i Islami Hekmatyar visited Kabul to negotiate with Afghan officials, but returned with little to show for their efforts.

..

[NokiaWnW]

Taliban are sooooo islamic..........a bunch of criminal thugs

Taliban Gaining More Resources From Kidnapping

LAHORE, Pakistan — A campaign of high-profile kidnappings has provided the Pakistani Taliban and its allies with new resources, arming insurgents with millions of dollars, threatening foreign aid programs and galvanizing a sophisticated network of jihadi and criminal gangs whose reach spans the country.


Wealthy industrialists, academics, Western aid workers and relatives of military officers have been targets in a spree that, since it started three years ago, has spread to every major city, reaching the wealthiest neighborhoods, Pakistani security officials say.
For many hostages, the experience means a harrowing journey into the heart of Waziristan, the fearsome Talibanredoubt along the Afghan border that has borne the brunt of a C.I.A. drone-strike campaign.
One young Punjabi businessman who spent six months there in Taliban hands last year described it as a terrifying time of grimy cells, clandestine journeys, brutal beatings and grinding negotiations with his distraught, distant family.
For all that, his captors betrayed glimpses of humanity, even humor: small acts of kindness; quirky after-dinner games; shared confidences and reminiscences. But their ruthless intent was never in doubt, the former hostage said, speaking anonymously because he feared reprisals against his family.
During his captivity, four teenage suicide bombers were undergoing instruction, taking indoctrination classes in the morning and carrying mock explosive vests equipped with push-button detonators in the afternoon.
“Their mantra was: ‘One button and you go to heaven,’ ” he recalled.
Kidnapping is a centuries-old scourge in parts of Pakistan, from the tribesmen who snatched British colonists in the 19th century to the slum gangs that have preyed on Karachi business families since the 1980s. The national total has varied only slightly in recent years: from 474 kidnappings for ransom in 2010 to 467 last year, according to Interior Ministry figures.
What has changed, however, is the level of Taliban involvement.
In one case, a 70-year-old German aid worker and his 24-year-old Italian colleague, who disappeared from the city of Multan on Jan. 20, are being held by militants in North Waziristan, a senior security official confirmed.
Others in militant captivity include Shahbaz Taseer, son of the assassinated former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer; two Swiss tourists who vanished as they drove toward the Iranian border; the son-in-law of a retired four-star army general; and Warren Weinstein, a 70-year-old American snatched from his home last August, days before he was due to leave Pakistan, and said to be held by Al Qaeda.
The Pakistani Taliban are unapologetic, saying the kidnappings earn valuable funds, offer leverage to free imprisoned fighters and are a political statement against longstanding American efforts to drive Al Qaeda from the tribal belt. “We are targeting foreigners in reaction to government demands that we expel the foreign mujahedeen,” said the deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Wali ur-Rehman, during an interview at his North Waziristan stronghold.
The kidnappings are continuing even as Pakistani security forces have seemed to blunt the militants’ ability to inflict mass casualties: suicide attacks fell by 35 percent in 2011, according to the annual report of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, while the number of people killed in attacks fell from 3,021 in 2009 to 2,391 last year.
But the lull may be temporary, experts warn, and meanwhile the militants are filling their coffers with ransom money.
The business is run like a mobster racket. Pakistani and foreign militant commanders, based in Waziristan, give the orders, but it is a combination of hired criminals and “Punjabi Taliban” who snatch the hostages from their homes, vehicles and workplaces.
Ransom demands typically range between $500,000 and $2.2 million, although the final price is often one-tenth of the asking amount, security experts say. The kidnappers’ methods are sophisticated: surveillance of targets that can last months; sedative injections to subdue victims after abduction; video demands via Skype; use of different gangs for different tasks, often with little knowledge of one another.
The victims tend to be wealthy — the police have recovered lists of prominent stock market players from kidnappers — and, often, from vulnerable sectarian minorities such as Hindus, Shiites and Ahmadi Muslims.

So it was with the young Punjabi businessman held in Waziristan last year. “They told me upfront I had been taken because I was an Ahmadi,” he said. “They consider us fair game.”

Snatched by armed men as he drove home from work, the hostage was locked in a cellar for a month before being driven to Miram Shah, the capital of North Waziristan, under the cover of a woman’s all-coveringburqa. He would spend five months there, imprisoned in a house with about 20 fighters from the various Taliban strands: Afghans, plotting to attack NATO soldiers across the border in Afghanistan, and Pakistani Taliban, drawn largely from the Mehsud tribe, pitted against their own government.
Over time the hostage developed relationships, of a sort, with his captors. Allowed to roam the compound, he fell into casual conversation with some, helped others with the cooking; sometimes, after meals, the militants would sit in a circle and make funny faces at each other. The hostage was encouraged to join in.
“The idea was to keep a straight face. At the end, everyone would burst into laughter,” he recalled with a wry smile. “It was funny and surreal.”
Some offered strange privileges. Before recording one hostage video, his captors thrashed him with a water hose. But afterward, two apologetic Afghan fighters sent for painkillers from the bazaar, and insisted on massaging his bruises with olive oil.
Still, there were frequent reminders of the militants’ cold-steel ideology and readiness to kill. As reading material, they offered a treatise by Al Qaeda’s ideological leader, Ayman al-Zawahri; at night they watched, on laptops, videos of Pakistani soldiers being executed, or carefully chosen excerpts from Hollywood titles: Muslims killing Christian crusaders in Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven,” or Sylvester Stallone battling Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan in “Rambo 3.”
Help seemed tantalizingly near at times. The sounds of chatting women and playing children drifted from the house next door. Climbing to the rooftop for exercise, he could see a Pakistani military base, its flag fluttering, on the other side of town. Twice, C.I.A.drone aircraft passed overhead. Yet no rescuers arrived.
“Waziristan is very safe for the Taliban; the place is crawling with them,” he said. “Even the non-Taliban carry weapons, so it’s hard to know who is who.”
Not all militant kidnappings are Taliban-related. In 2009, nationalist rebels in western Baluchistan Province held an American United Nations official for two months; Baluch nationalists are also suspects in the case of a British Red Cross doctor snatched from Quetta in January.
But no group can match the Taliban’s reach. In the seaside megalopolis of Karachi, Islamist kidnappers lurk in the sprawling slums, targeting rich business families. Sharfuddin Memon, an adviser to the home minister of Sindh Province, said militants recently demanded $6.6 million in return for a wealthy industrialist. But in December, the police cornered the kidnappers on the city outskirts; after a shootout, three were killed and the hostage walked free.
“We’ve learned to tell the difference,” Mr. Memon said. “With local criminals, it can take six weeks to resolve a case; with the Taliban it’s more like six months.”
The Taliban’s extended range is most striking, however, in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, where it has allied with criminal gangs to mount daring abductions, often in broad daylight.
One morning last August a gang driving motorbikes and a black S.U.V. dragged Mr. Taseer, the son of the assassinated governor, from his Mercedes sports car in a wealthy district of Lahore. Now Mr. Taseer is being held by Uzbek militants in Waziristan, said Mr. Rehman, the deputy Taliban commander.
Aiding the Taliban’s reach into Punjab is its alliance with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a vicious Sunni sectarian group whose cadres dominate the Punjabi Taliban and which has developed strong ties with Al Qaeda. “We see the nexus between the two groups in most cases,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
Sometimes the kidnappers demand more than money. When the son-in-law of Gen. Tariq Majid, a former chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, appeared in a hostage video last year, he reportedly called for the release of 153 prisoners as well as $1.4 million in cash. The hostage identified his captors as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The problem is hurting foreign aid efforts on behalf of poor Pakistanis.
In 2010, Mercy Corps closed 44 offices in two provinces after the Taliban executed an employee taken hostage in Baluchistan. Mercy Corps reportedly paid $250,000 to free four others who had been captured. The abduction of the two Europeans in Multan last month, and the disappearance of a Kenyan aid worker two days later, stirred fresh alarm among aid workers.
Interior Minister Malik said the government did not encourage payment of ransom, but conceded that, for those who ended up in Waziristan, there were few alternatives — even if it meant financing the insurgency.
When the young Punjabi businessman was freed last year, his family sent a cash payment to the Taliban. Just before his departure from the Miram Shah compound, a handful of fighters bid him farewell.
It was summer, they explained, so it was time to trek across the jagged mountains into Afghanistan, for a fresh season of battle against American and NATO forces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/wo...nted=1&_r=2&hp

...

[abassinafghan]

Majority of Pashtuns want Taliban. You can not make them understand they are dangerous people, they are servants of ISI and other criminals (US, PAK, Israel....). The case with NA is that they are highly anti-Taliban and support democracy and a federal system, most of all Dostum.

dont somke so much tariaq and chars kandolak , its not good for your brains


most pashtuns as afghans want peace and make a living ,feed their families and wish for their children a better future .

unfourtently s-c-u-m bags minded like you are in power or in opposition funded by foreigners


we have seen what kind of goverment , ahmad buss massoud , rocketyar , rabbani ,dostum and the rest had in the 90s , our country was destroyed and every thing we had was sold , burned down our stolen .

so spare us with your cheap propaganda .


if fedaralism means that all people of afghanistan should have a fair

share in goverment as in duties , than i am on your side

if fedaralism means that the wallis of a welaiat should be voted by election of the people who lives there , than i also aprove this .


however if you day dream your facist sholai day dreams where a lat ,

claiming to fight for the haq of the tajiks , uzbeks,turkmens or pashtuns ,

arm himself taking money from aboard , making private contracts to sell

of the propertiy of the afghan people , or wants to make parts of

afghanistan iranian , paki or uzbek provinces .

like it happend in herat , were ismael khar opend borders for iranians as they wish
and just blasted every enterpreuner who wanted to build some sustainable economical basis .


than my answer is simple : go back where you think you belong to and leave us alone i am sure your uzbek , turkmen or tajik or iranian brothers would be really happy to welcome you home ..